THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Is a difficult task at the best of times. When you live in Iraq the task is much worse. The LA Times provides a look at the path of one family and their travails is getting passports to leave the only country they have know.

Foreign travel was never easy for Iraqis during the 34-year rule of Saddam Hussein, who barred most people from leaving the country. Restrictions loosened after his April 2003 ouster, and in July 2004 the new Iraqi government began issuing so-called S-series passports to millions of people clamoring to travel for the first time.

Now the noose has tightened again.

The United States announced in January that it would no longer accept the hastily crafted S passports, with their pasted-on photographs and handwritten information. Instead, all Iraqis coming to the United States must show G-series passports, which were introduced by the Iraqi government about a year ago and meet international anti-forgery and other security standards. European and most Middle Eastern countries have done the same.

The rule affects Iraqis already outside the country as well as those still here, and it comes at the worst possible time for them. An estimated 2 million people have fled Iraq to escape its violence, and millions more desperately want to as the mayhem increases and health, education and other services deteriorate.

The government cannot keep up with demand for the new passports, leaving would-be travelers facing a wretched choice: Pay hundreds of dollars — even thousands, depending on family size — to unofficial middlemen to speed up the process, or go the official route and end up like Allawchi, who ending up waiting 70 days — nearly twice as long as the process is supposed to take — to get his passport.

And this is just the first step, now they have to get out and find a country that will take them. And they live with the knowledge that they are not safe until they are wherever there is.